With your support, we can make a difference in the lives of patients at the QEII Health Sciences Centre. Listed below are some of the current top funding priorities. To find out more about how you can help, please call 473-7932.
Electro-surgical Units
Patient Monitors
Dialysis Machines
Intra-operative MRI - Brain Repair Centre
Minimally Invasive Surgical Skills Centre
Operating Room Tables
Cystoscopy Table
Nerve Integrity Monitor
Donor-Designated Gifts
Making surgical procedures simpler produces better recovery results for patients and reducing wait times as more surgeries can be completed in a shorter period of time. Electro-surgical units, which combine tissue cutting and incision coagulating, replace traditional scalpels and offer significant advantages for 95% of the surgical patients that come to the QEII each year by removing the need for sutures and the tying-off of blood vessels. The QEII Foundation is committed to providing our surgical teams with these time-saving, advanced tools.
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The Post Anesthetic Care Unit (PACU) at the QEII, formerly known as the Recovery Room, is the area where patients are cared for immediately following surgery. The nurses in these areas use patient monitors to assist them in keeping a close watch over their patients. The monitors can be considered added "eyes and ears" for the nurse. These machines are used to check blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, and other vital signs. This equipment is critical to the safe care of the patient following surgery.
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For patients who have damaged, dysfunctional or missing kidneys, dialysis machines mimic some of the functions of a human kidney by removing waste products from the blood and excess fluid in the form of urine. There are three types of dialysis treatments – acute, chronic and peritoneal.
Unfortunately, dialysis does not cure kidney disease. But without the assistance of a dialysis machine, the patient’s body would be unable to remove unwanted waste products. The build-up of these waste products in a patient’s body would result in death.
Patients receive dialysis treatments at the Dickson Centre, the Dartmouth General, and at ten satellite offices throughout the province. The new dialysis machines will support acute haemodialysis treatments and chronic haemodialysis treatments. Approximately 45,000 treatments are performed annually.
All equipment has a useful lifespan and 30 of the QEII’s dialysis machines are at the end of that span. In partnership with the Department of Health, it is crucial that these vital pieces of equipment be replaced immediately to avoid a lapse in life saving care to patients.
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With an aging population, over the next two decades brain disorders are expected to surpass cancer and heart disease as the most prevalent killers and disablers of Canadians — destroying not just their victims, but the dreams of entire families. This dreadful list includes Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), stroke, epilepsy, spinal cord injury and serious mental illness. The economic toll will be equally severe, estimated at $30 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.
The Brain Repair Centre is a significant step towards helping reverse this tide, and will be one of the world’s leading research centres devoted to fighting incurable neurological disorders. The benefits for the QEII are significant:
- Patients in Atlantic Canada will be the first to benefit from new diagnostic tools and treatments;
- More than 25% of the $58 million project will be spent on research equipment and construction located at the QEII, including an “Interoperative MRI”. An “Interoperative MRI” enables neurologists to observe brain operation in real-time. This is a new and highly sophisticated diagnostic imaging tool that is currently not available to patients in Atlantic Canada.
- Atlantic Canada will become known as a Centre for world-class neurological care and neurosurgery;
- More researchers will be drawn to the BRC’s groundbreaking work.
In addition, significant new research dollars will be invested here, enhancing our region’s knowledge-based economy.
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Delivery of excellence in health care requires professionals to be competent in many skill sets. Better training in clinical and surgical skills means better care for patients. A Skills Centre at the QEII Health Sciences Centre will bring skills training for health care professionals into a single institution.
Simulation-based medical skills training will provide a practical learning opportunity in a safe environment where mistakes become opportunities for learning and skill improvement without harming patients. Through the Skills Centre, health care professionals will share information and skills, both locally at the Centre and over distance.
Minimally invasive surgery will be studied in multipurpose suites, with simulated learning and e-learning environments. Minimally invasive surgery is the practice of using surgical procedures with the least amount of intrusion possible. This type of Centre will have a profound impact on health outcomes of patients throughout Atlantic Canada by substantially reducing health care costs and wait times for patients. Abdominal procedures will include surgery for hiatal hernia, kidney transplants, colon resections in the treatment of Crohn’s disease, colitis and some cancers. Thoracic surgery techniques will improve treatment for esophageal tumors and lung tumors. Being able to offer minimally invasive surgery practices related to abdominal and thoracic surgery, will increase the number of procedures that are able to be annually performed.
The quality of treatment will be greatly enhanced, and trainees will benefit from the many features available at the Skills Centre and learn leading edge medical procedures. This valuable innovation will ensure the QEII Health Science Centre continues to be a leader in skills training for its physicians.
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As research efforts continue to advance health care, new medical procedures are developed and the solutions for more and more diseases and conditions are becoming surgical. The operating room table is essential for most surgical procedures. The table must be designed to accommodate advancing technologies and procedures and must be fully equipped to allow for various patient sizes and weights. Also, integration of skills and procedures carried out in operating rooms is an upward trend meaning the operating room table must be an all inclusive, fully functioning apparatus with multiple positioning capabilities for greatest flexibility.
The QEII has 37 operating room tables in constant use. It is essential that 25 be replaced immediately. They have served patients well but due to their age and the difficulty in finding replacement parts, they lack the functionality required in a modern operating theatre and are breaking down too often.
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Mainly utilized by urologists, the cystoscopy table is used during a cystoscopy procedure. This involves the examination of the lining of the bladder and urethra to detect prostate enlargement, stones, tumors, and other potential causes of urinary bleeding and infection. The test includes the use of a thin viewing instrument called a cystoscope that in conjunction with other instruments, can remove bladder tumors, crush or remove stones, treat bleeding concerns, and remove tissue and urine samples for further investigation.
Key to any surgery is the proper positioning of the patient for patient comfort and for optimal viewing and access by the physician. As techniques have evolved, so has the need for an appropriate table.
Using this type of minimally invasive treatment can save health care dollars. If performed early on a patient experiencing difficulty, it has the potential to eliminate the need for more extensive surgery. A new cystoscopy table will ensure that patients have access to the latest technology available in the field.
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Accomplishing health care miracles requires equipping QEII staff with the best equipment. A Nerve Integrity Monitor- an intraoperative nerve monitor for use during spinal surgery – is one such piece of technology that the health sciences centre requires. A Nerve Integrity Monitor is particularly useful for nerve proximity and spinal cord integrity monitoring during delicate spinal surgery. Its acquisition will help us as we build the QEII Health Sciences Centre into a truly world-class health care facility.
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The QEII Foundation encourages gifts that are designated to a particular area or program within the health centre. Donors who have a particular interest or health-related cause within the QEII can work with a member of the Foundation staff to ensure that their contribution is used for this specific purpose. It is the role of the Foundation staff member to ensure that any designated gift to the Foundation is consistent with the mission and mandate of Capital Health, the QEII Health Sciences Centre and the QEII Foundation.
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